XW Corporate Colours

XW GT

There were three colours offered on XW GT’s that could be considered ‘corporate’ colours: Y016, RACWA yellow, Y117, Brambles Red; Y099, Shell Yellow: and Y264, Fanta Orange.

There was one XW GT painted Y016, Royal Automobile Club Western Australia yellow.

Y117, Brambles Red, is probably one of the most famous of the fleet codes because it was used as Ford’s colour scheme for its XW GT race cars.

Instructions on how to clean your toilet

1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.

2. Pick up the cat and soothe it while you carry it towards the bathroom.

3. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids.

4. The cat will self agitate. You may need to stand on the lid and give the cat time to make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.

5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a "power-wash" and "rinse".

6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.

7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can and quickly lift both lids.

8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where it will dry itself off.

9. Both the toilet and the cat will be sparkling clean.

SINCERELY,
THE DOG

Why did the pig cross the road

Q. Why did the pig cross the road
A. To prove that he wasn't a chicken

Corporate Colours Cont

Springtime Yellow, option code ‘A’ was another example and five produced on an XT GT.



67 Mustang.

The Gift of You

What children of all ages want most is more of you. More special times. More pure delight. More whimsy. More shared laughter. More memories to store in their hearts. Give yourself to your child, again and again and again... Give redeemable coupons for each of the following gifts:
• We will make banana splits for breakfast. (Or let your child choose the homemade sweet treat of their choice.)
• We will stay up all night -- watching your favourite videos, playing your favourite games, eating junk food and looking at family photo albums. Then we'll watch the sun rise from any spot you choose within one hour of our home.
• I will wake you up to watch a meteor shower, no matter what time of night the shooting stars begin to appear.
• We will play your favourite board or card game at night, either on the beach or in the woods. We'll use a battery-powered lava lamp for light.
• We will find out when a child living in a shelter has her birthday. On that child's birthday, we'll surprise her by bringing her a bouquet of balloons and a toy, and singing "Happy Birthday" to her.
• We will dance outside in our bathing suits during a summer rain shower (as long as there's no thunder and lightning and that we do have some rain!).
• We will go to a river or stream of your choice, or the ocean, and send a message in a bottle.
• We will go to a movie and then out to eat in homemade costumes.

Indelible Ink

A couple was making their first doctors visit prior to the birth of their first child. After the exam, the doctor took a small stamp and stamped the wife’s stomach with indelible ink. The man and his wife were curious about what the stamp was for, so when they got home, the man took out his magnifying glass to try to see what is was. In very small letters, the stamp said, “When you can read this, come back and see me.”

Corporate Colours cont

However, it also should be noted that XT GT’s, first released in 1968, were also painted two earlier, 1967, US Ford colours; Vintage Burgundy and Springtime Yellow.


Again, a photo of a Vintage Burgundy, option code ‘F’ XT GT is not available, but here is the colour on a 1967 Mustang.

Happiness

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." --George Burns, comedian, actor

Hell

Hell is a place where:
The lovers are Swiss
The cooks are English
The mechanics are French
The police are German and
The government is run by the Italians.

Corporate Colours 4

There was one colour offered on the XT GT that can be considered a ‘corporate’ colour, that is F117, Brambles Red. There were four cars painted this colour, two were explicitly tagged as being F117, but a further two, although being painted Brambles Red, were not tagged on the compliance plate as such.

Unfortunately, we have no photos of a Brambles Red XT, but the colour carried through to the XW model so we will provide an illustration and explanation there.

However, at this point it may be interesting to illustrate that very few of Ford’s US colours actually transferred over to the Australian range of Fords. Comparison with the 1968 US Ford colour chart shows that only one colour crossed the Pacific: Candy Apple Red, option code ‘G’..

Candy Apple Red

XT GT



68 Ford Mustang



This was a popular colour for the XR GT, 331 being so painted.

More examples to follow.

Lesson Transitions

One of the greatest haemorrhages of time-on-task in any classroom is the lesson transition. A lesson transition usually takes about five minutes. During those lesson transitions, students move in a most unhurried fashion as they hand in papers, sharpen pencils, get drinks, move furniture into or out of groups, and get out materials. There is utterly no sense of urgency. Obviously, students like nice big, unhurried breaks with brief lessons sandwiched in between. They know that, as soon as the transition is over, it will be time to get back to work.
Your average lesson transition can easily be accomplished in half-a-minute, if the students choose to hustle. But, why would the students hustle if hustling only puts them back to work sooner? To see how a lesson transition can be accomplished in half-a-minute, let's walk through a transition that contains a Hurry-up Bonus.

"Class, before you get out of your seats, let me tell you what I want you to do during this lesson transition. First, hand in your papers by putting them on the corner of my desk. Then, if you need to sharpen your pencils, this is the time to do it. If you need a drink of water, this is the time to get it. I want my clean-up committee to erase my boards and straighten up the books on the shelf. I want everybody to pick up any paper you see lying around the room and get your desks back on their marks. I will give you two minutes to get this done. But you know from past experience that you can get it done in half-a-minute or less. So, let's see hustle and how much time you can save. All of the time you save will be added to your class free time. Let's check the clock. (Pause until the second hand passes the six or twelve.) Okay, let's begin."

Work Categories

You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, "I am very rich. Marry me!"

That's Direct Marketing.


You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl.
One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you and says,
"He's very rich. Marry him."

That's Advertising.


You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and get her telephone number.
The next day you call and say, "Hi, I’m very rich. Marry me."

That's Telemarketing.


You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl.
You get up and straighten your tie; you walk up to her and pour her a drink.
You open the door for her; pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm very rich. Will you marry me?"

That's Public Relations.


You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl.
She walks up to you and says, "You are very rich."

That's Brand Recognition.


You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, "I'm rich. Marry me"
She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.

That's Customer Feedback!!!!

Off to get the bride

For no other reason than I like the photos\, get a load of this one. This was me off to the wedding the other weekend. I just liked the photo because of the artistic elements. Or something like that.

The Corporate Colours 3

If you have been doing the maths you will see we have accounted for 9 of the 13 non GT Gold cars. For the record, the other four cars were one of each:.

Russet Bronze metallic, which was another non-option paint colour, Z782.

Sultan Maroon metallic, which was option code ‘F’. This was the car entered by Bob Jane and Spencer Martin in the 1967 Gallaher 500.



olar White, option code ‘E’. This was the car raced by the Geogeghan Brothers at the 1967 race.



Ivy Green metallic, option code ‘X’. This was the race winning car of Fred Gibson and Harry Firth.

Ways to Make Conflict Productive

Dealing with conflict is a task many managers struggle with or even avoid. But it is possible to transform disagreement and discord into positive outcomes. Here are six constructive ways to respond to conflict.

Number one, Take another perspective. Imagine what the other person is thinking and feeling. Ask open-ended questions and set aside your assumptions. Rephrase, restate or summarize what you think has been said. Empathize and let the other person know when you understand. Ask for examples to clarify the issues when you don't.

Number two, create solutions. Make it your priority to generate new ideas. Begin by identifying each other's motives, goals and agendas. Together, come up with every possible solution without evaluating them. Express an alternative point of view in the form of a question, such as "Would another solution be X?" Most importantly, be willing to compromise.

Number three, Express your emotions. Talk honestly and directly to the other person. Choose your words carefully, keeping them both courteous and professional. Explain how you feel and why. And try not to let your own hot buttons interfere with the process. If you need a time out, take one.

Number four, Make the first move toward reconciliation. Try to repair emotional damage caused by the conflict by getting the communication started again. Ask yourself, "How do I want to be viewed after the conflict is over?" Express your sincere desire to understand. Admit responsibility for your contribution to the conflict, and ask what you can do to make amends. But remember - you may need to delay your response until the situation has settled down some.

Number five, Take time to reflect on the situation. This reflection will help you figure out the best way to proceed. Note your initial reaction to a conflict and consider why you responded the way you did. Carefully review alternative reactions and the pros and cons of each. Try to give others time for reflective thinking as well.

Number six, Stay flexible and adapt. It's important to look forward, not back. Communicate your optimism that things will work out. Seek out sympathetic co-workers or friends when you need to "unload" or get a pep talk. If opportunities to reconcile or resolve the conflict arise, take advantage of them. Be professional in your attitude, words and behaviour.

Conflict is an inevitable part of the workplace, but by using these strategies, your disagreements are sure to be short-lived.

Funny signs on businesses

In the front yard of a funeral home, "Drive carefully, we'll wait."
In a nonsmoking area, "If we see you smoking, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action."
On a maternity room door, "Push, Push, Push."
On a front door, "Everyone on the premises is a vegetarian except the dog."
At an optometrist's office, "If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place."
On a taxidermist's window, "We really know our stuff."
On a butcher's window, "Let me meat your needs."
On a fence, "Salesmen welcome. Dog food is expensive."
At a car dealership, "The best way to get back on your feet -- miss a car payment."
Outside a muffler shop, "No appointment necessary. We'll hear you coming."
On a desk in a reception room, "We shoot every 3rd salesman, and the 2nd one just left."
In a veterinarian's waiting room, "Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"
In a Beauty Shop, "Dye now!"
On the side of a garbage truck, "We've got what it takes to take what you've got." (Burglars please copy.)
In a restaurant window, "Don't stand there and be hungry, come in and get fed up."
Inside a bowling alley, "Please be quiet. We need to hear a pin drop."
In a cafeteria, "Shoes are required to eat in the cafeteria. Socks can eat any place they want."

The Corporate Colours 2

F166 - Gallaher Silver



Gallaher commissoned Ford to build 8 XR GT’s painted colour F166, Gallaher Silver, and used them for promotion work. At the time Gallaher was sponsor of the 500 mile race at Mount Panorama, Bathurst; Ford were keen to enter their new XR GT model in the race; and Gallaher had a new range of cigarettes to promote, the GT King Size Filter. Hence, they all came together, to great effect, on the 1st of October, 1967.

Bringing up children

"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories." - John Wilmot

Police exam

A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you
had to arrest your own mother?"
He said: "Call for backup."

The Corporate Colours 1

We will restrict our examination of corporate colours to the GT model, for the simple reasons that the GT Falcons are the only models for which extensive figures and research has been released by Ford Australia, and the GT is now a highly collectable car with much interest shown in the cars providing a wide and historic photo database. As ever, we are highly indebted to the Falcon GT Club of Australia, their members, site webmaster and historian.

XR GT

The XR GT is most famously known for introducing the GT Gold paint colour, and most folk would be mistaken for believing that all XR GT’s were painted this colour. Of the 684 manufactured, 671 were gold, and 13 were not. These 13 cars were split between six further different colours, four of which were standard option colours for the XR model Falcon, and two of which were special ‘corporate’ colours.

F131 - Avis White






n this context, F131 is the Ford fleet representation. The colour scheme was also known as Y131, and it is the ‘Y’ code that most commonly appears on the compliance plate in the paint section as an alternative to the single digit alphanumeric code. The Dulux formula for Avis White is 8986. There only seems to be one ‘Avis’ colour listed in the Ford charts, and it is this white. This car was built for a Ford executive.

Public education is not just the government's business

Professor Brian Caldwell (Sydney Morning Herald 21 June 2007)

Brian Caldwell heads Educational Transformations and is a professorial fellow at the
University of Melbourne, where he was dean of education from 1998 to 2004. This
article draws from the 2007 Phillip Hughes Oration for the Australian College of
Educators 21 June 2007.

An expanded role for business in schools has been placed on the agenda in recent weeks, yet Australia has a long way to go before we match what has been accomplished elsewhere. Resistance is strong in large sections of the educational community and at one end of the political spectrum. There is still the view that business has no place and, at least in the public sector, schools should be built, funded, owned, operated and supported from the public purse and that policy and practice should be solely determined by the provider.

England is an exemplar of how schools can establish partnerships with business. Some 2700 of about 3100 state secondary schools have achieved such an arrangement, on a limited scale under the Conservatives but comprehensively under the Blair Labour Government. These schools have changed from a standard comprehensive to a specialist schools model, offering at least one of 11 specialisations while still addressing the broad national curriculum. The specialisations are technology, arts, business and enterprise, engineering, humanities, language, mathematics and computing, music, science, sports and special education.

Each school has at least one partnership with business in its area of specialism. Except for small schools, business contributes £50,000 ($118,000) in cash or in-kind support, generating from the Department for Education and Skills an additional £100,000 capital grant and a per-student recurrent grant. The school must demonstrate in a three-year development plan how the specialisation will enhance its overall performance. A non-profit charitable trust is funded by the department to support schools in creating these partnerships. Academics may debate the impact, but there is clear evidence that specialist schools outperform non-specialist schools and the impact becomes stronger the longer a school remains in the program. This is one of the most significant developments in secondary education in any country.

Australia and England were comparable less than 20 years ago as far as business partnerships were concerned. Yet Australia has barely moved as England has been transformed. We have no counterpart to the strategies that have been adopted in England, such as a nationally funded trust that can create and support the synergy. While government and business are broadly supportive, we have not yet seen the advocacy for such arrangements to match that of Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, or business leaders such as Sir John Bond, a former chairman of HSBC, and Sir John Rose, chief executive of Rolls-Royce. We lack an imaginative approach to specialism in our schools. In Australia we tend to conflate the concept of a specialist school with that of a selective school. This is not the case in England, where no more than one in 10 of the student intake in a specialist school can be selected on the basis of prior academic achievement, allowing every student priority access to their nearest secondary school if it offers their preferred specialism. Different kinds of partnerships are emerging in parts of Australia, notably South Australia and Tasmania.

Seventeen schools in Adelaide are to be closed and replaced by six "super schools" that combine preschool, primary, secondary and a range of community services on one site in state of- the-art facilities: Australia's first large-scale adoption of the concept of the "full-service school". Tasmania will radically change the way its bureaucracy works by selling its head office and locating senior officers in schools. Proceeds from the sale will help rebuild schools. Regional directors will be accountable for the quality of their services to local boards of principals. There has been nothing like it in the history of state education in Australia.

Break down

It was a stormy night. A guy was driving in some mountains and his car broke down. He stopped it by a tree and walked down the highway looking for help. A headlight started to approach him from behind. He turned back and noticed a car coming forth very slowly. He walked up to it, opened the door, and sat on the passenger's seat. Then he suddenly notices that there was no driver, but the car was moving!

Before the guy could decide what to do, a sharp turn appeared a few meters before the car and it seemed that the car was going to go off the cliff. The guy trembled in fright, but a pale hand came in from the open window and turned the steering wheel! When the car finished turning around the curve, the hand withdrew. Every time there was a turn, the same hand would come in and guide the wheels of the car to safety.

The guy could not believe all this. As soon as he saw the lights of some rest stop by the road he jumped off the car and ran into a bar, pale, wet, trembling, and telling everybody that he had a most creepy, supernatural experience.

Then two young men dripping in mud came into the bar. One saw the guy and said, "Hey, that's the stupid fellow that got in our car while were pushing."

Only too pleased to help

I love this picture (yes, taken by me on my new phone, but that's not the point - the cameras in them are unbelievable now).

I get a buzz from helping out at weddings as they're such positive occasions. The car comes up nicely too. It's amazing what 5 hours of work can do!

Generation Gap

There have been a couple of generations in the last sixty years that have missed the boat but this group isn't one of them. A first grade school teacher in Virginia had twenty-five students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the first half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders.
Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are 6 year olds.

1. Don't change horses...........until they stop running.
2. Strike while the............................bug is close.
3. It's always darkest before..............Daylight Saving Time.
4. Never underestimate the power of ....................termites.
5. You can lead a horse to water but........................how?
6. Don't bite the hand that..........................looks dirty.
7. No news is.........................................impossible.
8. A miss is as good as a....................................Mr.
9. You can't teach an old dog new...........................math.
10. You lie down with dogs, you'll ......stink in the morning.
11. Love all, trust................................ me.
12. The pen is mightier than the...................... ......pigs.
13. An idle mind is........................the best way to relax.
14. Where there's smoke there's.......................pollution.
15. Happy the bride who.....................gets all the presents.
16. A penny saved is ...................................not much.
17. Two's company, three's ....................the Musketeers.
18. Don't put off till tomorrow what ......you put on to go to bed.
19. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and …You have to blow your nose.
20. There are none so blind as.......................Stevie Wonder.
21. Children should be seen and not.....spanked or grounded.
22. If at first you don't succeed................get new batteries.
23. You get out of something only what you ................see in the picture on the box.
24. When the blind lead the blind................get out of the way.
25. Better late than......................................pregnant.

Waiter!

To impress his date, the young man took her to a very chick Italian restaurant. After sipping some fine wine, he picked up the menu and ordered.
"We'll have the Giuseppe Spomdalucci," he said.
"Sorry, sir," said the waiter. "That"s the owner."

Car colours continued

Here is the specification and option sheet for an XA.



If the customer chose Red Pepper from the colour chart, we can see from the chart that that is paint code ‘X’ and hence, paint code ‘X’ shows up stamped on the compliance plate for the car, as below.



Ford of Australia was a large company, and Ford worldwide was huge, and they supplied many vehicles to many companies which were painted in what could be termed ‘corporate colours’, in other words, a colour that was synonymous with that commercial organisation. Ford maintained a huge list of these colours based on Dulux formulae, and while they were usually restricted to vehicles supplied to the commercial organisations, occasionally, deliberately or by accident, these colours slipped out into the wider world.

Potter Has Limited Effect on Reading Habits

New York Times: July 11, 2007

Of all the magical powers wielded by Harry Potter, perhaps none has cast a stronger spell than his supposed ability to transform the reading habits of young people. In what has become near mythology about the wildly popular series by J. K. Rowling, many parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers have credited it with inspiring a generation of kids to read for pleasure in a world dominated by instant messaging and music downloads. And so it has, for many children. But in keeping with the intricately plotted novels themselves, the truth about Harry Potter and reading is not quite so straightforward a success story. Indeed, as the series draws to a much-lamented close, federal statistics show that the percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop significantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before Harry Potter came along.

There is no doubt that the books have been a publishing sensation. In the 10 years since the first one, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” was published, the series has sold 325 million copies worldwide, with 121.5 million in print in the United States alone. Before Harry Potter, it was virtually unheard of for kids to queue up for a mere book. Children who had previously read short chapter books were suddenly ploughing through more than 700 pages in a matter of days. Scholastic, the series’ United States publisher, plans a record-setting print run of 12 million copies for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the eagerly awaited seventh and final instalment due out at 12:01 a.m. on July 21.

But some researchers and educators say that the series, in the end, has not permanently tempted children to put down their Game Boys and curl up with a book instead. Some kids have found themselves daunted by the growing size of the books (“Sorcerer’s Stone” was 309 pages; “Deathly Hallows,” will be 784). Others say that Harry Potter does not have as much resonance as titles that more realistically reflect their daily lives. “The Harry Potter craze was a very positive thing for kids,” said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who has reviewed statistics from federal and private sources that consistently show that children read less as they age. “It got millions of kids to read a long and reasonably complex series of books. The trouble is that one Harry Potter novel every few years is not enough to reverse the decline in reading.”

Educators agree that the series can’t get the job done alone. “Unless there are scaffolds in place for kids — an enthusiastic adult saying, ‘Here’s the next one’ — it’s not going to happen,” said Nancie Atwell, the author of “The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers” and a teacher in Edgecomb, Me. “And in way too many American classrooms it’s not happening.”

Young people are less inclined to read for pleasure as they move into their teenage years for a variety of reasons, educators say. Some of these are trends of long standing (older children inevitably become more socially active, spend more time on reading-for-school or simply find other sources of entertainment other than books), and some are of more recent vintage (the multiplying menagerie of high-tech gizmos that compete for their attention, from iPods to Wii consoles). What parents and others hoped was that the phenomenal success of the Potter books would blunt these trends, perhaps even creating a generation of lifelong readers in their wake.

“Anyone who has children or grandchildren sees the competition for children’s time increasing as they enter adolescence, and the difficulty that reading seems to have to compete effectively,” Mr. Gioia said. Many thousands of children have, indeed, gone from the Potter books to other pleasure reading. But others have dropped away. Starting when Avram Leierwood was 7, he would read the books aloud with his mother, Mina. “We’d sit in the treehouse in our backyard and take turns,” recalled Ms. Leierwood, of South Minneapolis.

But while Ms. Leierwood has remained an avid fan, Avram, now 15, is indifferent. When “Deathly Hallows” comes out, he will be on a canoe trip. As for reading, he said: “I don’t really have much time anymore. I like to hang out with my friends, talk, go watch movies and stuff, go to the park and play ultimate Frisbee.”

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a series of federal tests administered every few years to a sample of students in grades 4, 8 and 12, the percentage of kids who said they read for fun almost every day dropped from 43 percent in fourth grade to 19 percent in eighth grade in 1998, the year “Sorcerer’s Stone” was published in the United States. In 2005, when “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth book, was published, the results were identical. Many parents, educators and librarians say that despite such statistics, they have seen enough evidence to convince them that Harry Potter is a bona fide hero.

Cookie analysis

Psychologists have discovered that the manner in which people eat Oreo cookies provides great insight into their personalities. Choose which method best describes your favorite method of eating Oreos:

1. The whole thing all at once.
2. One bite at a time
3. Slow and methodical nibbles examining the results of each bite afterwards.
4. In little feverous nibbles.
5. Dunked in some liquid (milk, coffee...).
6. Twisted apart, the inside, then the cookie.
7. Twisted apart, the inside, and toss the cookie.
8. Just the cookie, not the inside.
9. I just like to lick them, not eat them.
10.I don't have a favorite way because I don't like Oreos.


Your Personality:

1. The whole thing:
This means you consume life with abandon, you are fun to be with, exciting, carefree with some hint of recklessness. You are totally irresponsible. No one should trust you with his or her children.

2. One bite at a time:
You are lucky to be one of the 5.4 billion other people who eat their Oreos this very same way. Just like them, you lack imagination, but that's okay, not to worry, you're normal.

3. Slow and Methodical:
You follow the rules. You're very tidy and orderly. You're very meticulous in every detail with every thing you do to the point of being anal retentive and irritating to others. Stay out of the fast lane if you're only going to go the speed limit.

4. Feverous Nibbles:
Your boss likes you because you get your work done quickly. You always have a million things to do and never enough time to do them. Mental breakdowns and suicides run in your family. Valium and Ritalin would do you good.

5. Dunked:
Every one likes you because you are always up beat. You like to sugar coat unpleasant experiences and rationalize bad situations into good ones. You are in total denial about the shambles you call a life. You have a propensity towards narcotic addiction.

6. Twisted apart, the inside, and then the cookie:
You have a highly curious nature. You take pleasure in breaking things apart to find out how they work, though not always able to put them back together, so you destroy all the evidence of your activities. You deny your involvement when things go wrong. You are a compulsive liar and exhibit deviant, if not criminal, behavior.

7. Twisted apart, the inside, and then toss the cookie:
You are good at business and take risk that pay off. You take what you want and throw the rest away. You are greedy, selfish, mean, and lack feelings for others. You should be ashamed of yourself. But that's ok, you don't care, you got yours.

8. Just the cookie, not the inside:
You enjoy pain.

9. I just like to lick them, not eat them:
Stay away from small furry animals and seek professional medical help - immediately.

10. I don't have a favorite way, I don't like Oreos:
You probably come from a rich family, and like to wear nice things, and go to upscale restaurants. You are particular and fussy about the things you buy, own, and wear. Things have to be just right. You like to be pampered. You are a prissy.

New vs old 3

A dash of colour

Over the next few posts I'll be dealing with the paint schemes applied to some of the classic X-series Australian Fords. By its very nature, the subject of paint is huge and as such, we want to touch on some of the more unusual aspects of paint schemes, and try and provide a background to how some of the codes and paint coding works.

Through the years of the X-series Falcons and Fairmonts, Ford relied on a series of alphanumeric codes to differentiate the colours that they painted their cars. These codes appeared on option specification sheets, and on the compliance plate of the car, but, as far as the customer was concerned, he or she was presented with a nice colour brochure from which to choose a colour.

Here is that colour chart for the XA.

More Sirs 'won't shut gender gap'

BBC News, 6 July 2007

Recruiting more male teachers will not help close the gap between boys' and girls' educational achievement, government researchers say. Ministers plan to increase the number of men in the classroom as part of plans to help boys get better grades. But a report released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families suggested the approach was "simplistic" and could back-fire.

Using more boy-friendly teaching styles was also unlikely to help, it added.
The report - Gender and Education: The Evidence on Pupils in England - was a review of previous research into the fact that girls consistently out-perform boys at GCSE, especially in subjects like English. And results last summer showed that by the age of 14 boys were 14% behind girls on average in their national test results for English.

The DCSF report said: "The increasing gender imbalance in the school workforce has raised concern that male role models are not available to boys. "The fact that policy efforts have been made to address this imbalance reflects the theory that having more male teachers could help to raise the attainment (and/or improve the behaviour) of boys.

"However, this approach has been criticised as simplistic." This was because research carried out last year found that two-thirds of pupils rejected the idea that the gender of their teachers mattered. Instead children looked at the qualities of teachers, rather than their gender.

Learning styles

Both boys and girls said they thought teachers treated boys more harshly than girls. The report said: "This finding is in line with other research suggesting that teachers have low expectations of boys' academic potential and such low expectations could contribute to their low achievement."

Some experts have suggested that boys perform less well than girls in schools because women teachers, who make up 84% of primary school teachers and 54% of secondary school teachers, naturally taught in ways preferred by girls. But the report found little evidence that boys and girls had different learning styles.

Small improvements

It also said that there was no case for introducing boy-friendly teaching methods because anything that was likely to improve boys' grades would also improve girls' results. This would then perpetuate the gender gap, the report argued. A DCSF spokesperson said: "It would be difficult to deny that positive role models are important to young people even if this cannot be proven in research.

"Boys do underachieve compared to girls in most subjects and this is a problem in almost every country in the developed world. "However, we are working hard to close the gap and we are already seeing some small improvements."

What's the big deal about New Year's?

There are 365.7 days until 2009!

It's Another New Year...

...but for what reason?

"Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard for at least the first couple of weeks as a new year gets under way. But the day celebrated as New Year's Day in modern America was not always January 1.

ANCIENT NEW YEARS
The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).

The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

The Babylonian new year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.

The Romans continued to observe the new year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun.

In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the new year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.

THE CHURCH'S VIEW OF NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS
Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the new year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's Day was no different. New Years is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations.

During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years. January 1 has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years.

NEW YEAR TRADITIONS
Other traditions of the season include the making of New Year's resolutions. That tradition also dates back to the early Babylonians. Popular modern resolutions might include the promise to lose weight or quit smoking. The early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.

The Tournament of Roses Parade dates back to 1886. In that year, members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers. It celebrated the ripening of the orange crop in California.

Although the Rose Bowl football game was first played as a part of the Tournament of Roses in 1902, it was replaced by Roman chariot races the following year. In 1916, the football game returned as the sports centerpiece of the festival.

The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year was begun in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

Although the early Christians denounced the practice as pagan, the popularity of the baby as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to reevaluate its position. The Church finally allowed its members to celebrate the new year with a baby, which was to symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus.

The use of an image of a baby with a New Years banner as a symbolic representation of the new year was brought to early America by the Germans. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.

FOR LUCK IN THE NEW YEAR
Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year's Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good fortune.

Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another "good luck" vegetable that is consumed on New Year's Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year's Day.

AULD LANG SYNE

The song, "Auld Lang Syne," playing in the background, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700's, it was first published in 1796 after Burns' death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scotch tune, "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days."

Good luck to you all

Have a wonderful evening, regardless of what you have planned.

Most importantly, stay safe.

Cheers